The dental profession has long recommended cleaning one's teeth with dental floss as a necessary part of daily dental hygiene. It is widely recognized that the proper use of dental floss is an effective means for preventing the buildup of plaque, gum disease and tooth decay.
Dental hygienists typically recommend wrapping a short length dental floss around the forefinger of each hand and holding this in place with the thumbs. The floss is then pulled tight and inserted into the gaps between each pair of teeth and moved up and down while wrapping the floss around the sides of the teeth as much as possible. The purpose of this wrapping action is to disturb the plaque and clean at the gum line not only between the teeth, but also around the corners and along the sides of the teeth.
This flossing operation, while necessary for dental health, is often neglected in practice because of the difficulty of holding onto the wet saliva-coated floss, the difficulty and clumsiness of inserting a major portion of both hands into the back of the mouth and finally, the difficulty of pulling the floss between tightly spaced teeth.
Both non-powered and powered flossing devices have attempted to alleviate these problems. Generally, there are one-handed units which incorporate a “V” shaped floss holder designed to eliminate the difficulty of holding the floss by the finger and thumb method. Although these one-handed devices appear to be a simple solution, they, in fact, greatly restrict the ability to wrap the floss around and clean the sides of the teeth. Many of these one-handed devices also incorporate rather complicated methods for attaching, replacing or advancing used floss across the “V” of the flossing device. At least some powered units generally incorporate the “V” shaped floss holder with all of its drawbacks, while adding vibratory motion to aid in plaque disruption and cleaning. The difficulty with this motion is that if the floss is loose enough to wrap around the teeth for proper cleaning, then the vibratory motion of the yoke may not be oriented such that it is able to induce to desired reciprocating motion of the floss along its length.
The prior art contains many patents similar to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,279,414 and 5,267,579 which have these “V” shaped yokes for tightly holding a short length of floss and imparting a vibratory or oscillating motion to it. The floss is either tied onto the yoke as in the case of U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,579, or the yoke with a short length of floss is made to be detachable and disposable. The problem with flossers of this type is that the floss must be installed tightly across the open end of the “V” shaped yoke and so the floss cannot be wrapped around the tooth for proper cleaning. If the floss is installed loosely across the “V” shaped yoke, then, during floss insertion, the yoke will contact the teeth before the floss becomes tight. This contact between the yoke and teeth will make it difficult if not impossible to insert the floss between the teeth and no useful motion will be imparted to the floss.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,109 presents a non-powered, two handed flosser with floss wrapped around the ends of the two flossing handles. During flossing, the floss is unwrapped from one handle and wrapped onto the other. The problem with this device is that it is very difficult to insert the floss between teeth and to thoroughly clean them without the assistance of rapid powered floss motion. Also, since the floss is just wrapped around the ends of the handles, any attempt to pull the floss tight while wrapping the floss in a “U” shape around a tooth is likely to pull the floss off of the end of the coil of floss.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,257 is a powered flosser with a removable arm or handle that can be used for two handed flossing. This device has at least three problems. First, the floss is not easily replaceable. Second, the floss is in a V-shape between the powered and non-powered handles, making it awkward if not impossible to wrap the floss around the teeth. Third, the powered handle imparts a lateral vibratory motion to the floss “arm,” so that even if the floss could be wrapped in a “U” shape around a tooth, it would be essentially parallel to the flosser “arm” at its attachment point, and so almost no reciprocating motion could be imparted to the floss when it is most needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,711 presents a device used to convert an electric toothbrush into a power-driven flossing device. This flossing device also uses a “V” shaped yoke to hold the floss, and in addition, the yoke has conical apertures at the tip of each leg of the “V” that accept and hold a length of floss with a bead at each end. The floss is attached by pressing the legs of the “V” shaped yoke towards each other enough to allow insertion of a bead into each aperture. When the yoke is released the legs of the “V” pull the floss tight across the yoke. Here again, the floss must remain tight across the yoke in order to remain attached to the flossing device.
Accordingly it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved electric flossing device which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.